I write following up my comments at the March 3 Select Board meeting, which I made with respect to the Select Board’s executive session on Jan. 30, 2018. That session was attended by, I believe, 13 individuals, including Peter Sismanis, his attorney, town counsel, and Hopkinton’s management team. The topic: allegations of inappropriate behavior by Sismanis at his pizza shop, Hillers Pizza.

Why did the town look away and disregard Sismanis’ history of assaulting girls who worked at his pizza shop (and before that, at Jelly Donuts) and do nothing for 25 years? Might it have to do with his generous contributions to campaign funds?

But then, when Tim Brennan and the victim of Deputy Police Chief [John] Porter’s story of abuse speak out, the town responds by firing Brennan. With 20-plus years in the Hopkinton Police Department, before that 15 at Bentley College, totaling 35-plus years of blemish-free service, he is terminated. Yet others, who released the insufficiently redacted Kroll report of the issue, faced no consequences.

Paraphrasing Bob Dylan, “How many times can a town turn its head and pretend that it just doesn’t see?”

— Edwin E Harrow, Hopkinton

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